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Every year around this time I am reminded of all the inaccuracies in the traditions about Christ and the bible. As I see multitudes of Evangelicals pointing the finger to Mormons to show us all our faults, I laugh as I think how true it is that they have 4 fingers pointing back at themselves. There are only two accounts of the birth of Jesus, or the Christmas story. In the Christian world, we are taught one story that takes bits and pieces from both, and then we grow up thinking that both are merely the same with a few variations. As I have repeatedly studied the origins and history of the New Testament I was surprised to learn how different the two stories are. They are, for all intents and purposes, two completely different stories.
Read through one and pretend that it is the only story about a birth. Then read the second story and ask yourself if you would even know the two have anything in common. Just food for thought…
You’re right. I’ve been posting on my blog about some other Christmas stories from apocryphal gospels. One of them states Jesus was born in a cave, and was hidden in a manger when Herod issued the edict to kill all boys under 2. There are some interesting apocryphal stories about the birth of Christ as well. I seriously doubt there is anything historically accurate about the Christmas story with the exception that Herod issued orders to kill a child who he feared was going to become the king of the Jews. I believe that event has been documented from other sources. Perhaps that child was named Jesus, the same child who we claim to be the Jesus Christ, Savior of the World, I can accept that as historically accurate. That’s about as far as I can go.
If you have a source for Herod, I’d like to hear it. From the accounts that I have heard, there is no record that Herod ever issued an edict to kill all boys under 2. Herod was ruthless enough to have issued such an order, but I don’t believe there is any evidence supporting it. Many people have tried to figure out a star, and I did a post 2 years ago where some scientists believe the star was when Jupiter and Saturn aligned in the sky. Zoroastrians were known astrologers from Iran (Persia). I did a post about the 3 Kings, and I think that story isn’t totally provable, but it does seem a bit plausible. You might want to check out
http://www.mormonheretic.org/2008/12/13/christmas-story-part-1/ mormonheretic wrote:If you have a source for Herod, I’d like to hear it. From the accounts that I have heard, there is no record that Herod ever issued an edict to kill all boys under 2. Herod was ruthless enough to have issued such an order, but I don’t believe there is any evidence supporting it.
Well, I think if there was a REAL additional source, you would probably know, so I guessing it’s just another mormon myth that I grew up with.
Yeah, I agree. I haven’t heard a lot of historical data that supports some of the bigger points of the story either such as the whole world being taxed, or even all the Roman territories nor anything like the edict of Herod. However, it doesn’t mean that parts or all of it didn’t happen. I just keep an open mind and think it’s probable that we don’t know what happened. Honestly, after studying a lot of the Bible and Christian history, I probably would have left Christianity all together if it wasn’t for the Book of Mormon. Like I said earlier, I find it funny when many Evangelicals point the finger at the Book of Mormon when the history of the Bible leaves far more certain doubt than does the Book of Mormon.
Anyhow, this post wasn’t meant to criticize anyone or any organization. For me, the lesson I learned as I studied the Bible is that my faith cannot be placed in any material object, book or organization unless it’s first placed on God and what I know about him. The rest is just supportive and adds to what I already know.
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